


The Flower Sister to His Star

by Nefaria_Black



Series: To Live in the Shadows [3]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Bella being Bella, Canon Compliant, Caring Lucius, F/M, Family Issues, Gen, Pregnant Narcissa, Prompt Fic, first wizarding war
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-03
Updated: 2018-03-03
Packaged: 2019-03-26 14:04:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,267
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13859286
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nefaria_Black/pseuds/Nefaria_Black
Summary: During the Spring of 1980, the Malfoys and the Lestranges assemble. Rodolphus recognizes someone's worth





	The Flower Sister to His Star

**Author's Note:**

> Written for several prompts and challenges, listed at the end so as not to spoil anything

**The Flower Sister to His Star**

 

_Malfoy Manor, April 1980_

The couples were gathered in the sunroom, talking, enjoying the warmth that seeped through the large windows, bathing in the light. The meeting had not started like this, not at all. Rodolphus and Bellatrix had been frenzied when they’d arrived. High from the hunt, from the kill. Another Ministry worker would be announced missing in the newspaper the next day, nothing left behind, no clues.

Lucius hadn’t been too happy. He and Bellatrix had a way of getting on each other’s nerves, working the other into such a state that nothing but snarky remarks made it past their lips. Narcissa had hushed them both tenderly. And even if Bella was still willing to keep going, Lucius was no match for his pregnant wife.

It was short-lived, the calm. Bella was still restless, he could tell. Her right feet dangling in the air, rhythmically moving, the tip slightly touching his shin, almost a caress. Rodolphus kept his right arm around her shoulders and squeezed. She turned her wide dark eyes to him.

“Settle down, Bella. We’re trying to have a conversation here.”

She smiled, keeping her head on the cradle of his shoulder. Then she set to moving, a haste to her gestures, rising from the cushioned bench, raising her arms to pull her curls up into a high ponytail that lasted only mere seconds, as long as her hands felt like staying still. She needed to move, to run, to work the excitement off. To fight it off, in words, in spells, in touches.

Rodolphus mused on the idea of an early departure, to snatch Bella away and lock the both of them inside their bedroom and work it off her until they had been completely sated. She would be willing, she was always willing after a kill. It was a matter of getting to her first. His musings were interrupted by the blonde witch.

“Bella,” Narcissa kept her voice quiet, soothing, while she drew patterns with her fingers on Lucius hand on her belly, “why all the unrest? What have you two been up to anyway?” Her blue eyes were absolutely clueless as to what her sister had been up to, Rodolphus realized. He couldn’t agree with Lucius when it came to keeping the blonde Black out of the loop. They all had dark deeds to their names, the three of them, Bella’s and his were by far worse than those of Lucius, but Narcissa should be made aware of the price, in case it was ever collected.

Rodolphus smirked at the glare Lucius shot at his wife. A very much _I won’t tell you again_ glare. Not that the eldest Black could ever be dissuaded by a simple glare.

“You’re so sweet, Cissy,” and Rodolphus cleared his throat, sensing the dripping sarcasm in Bella’s voice, “it’s so nice of you to ask.” She finished with an eager smile, finally coming to rest. Rodolphus made to rise, to stop Bella from saying things that she would come to regret. He knew that she cared deeply for her sister, but there was a streak of evil to her temper that couldn’t keep from lashing out at every given chance.

“You see, some of us are true servants to the Dark-” her words were cut short by Lucius, who rose with care from Narcissa’s side, only to stride menacingly to his sister-in-law and walk her to the garden just outside the glass-panelled doors. Always the gentleman, he opened the door to her, albeit there was really no choice to crossing it or not.

“I’m sorry, Cissa,” he told his wife with an apologetic smile, “I’ll bring your sister back in a moment.”

Rodolphus, who had not had the time to actually rise from his seat, got up and combed his dark slick hair back from his forehead with his fingers. He took in the sight of his sister-in-law, pristine looking in a pale blue dress that spread over her budding middle as she caressed it. The blue complimented her colours, the blue of her eyes, the blonde of her hair, the rose of her cheeks, the pale cream of her unblemished skin. A pregnant Madonna. A soothing sight that brought him down from his earlier high. He hadn’t realized yet, but the truth to Narcissa was just that. She was the one who brought the calm, the one who calmed Lucius, and him, and even Bellatrix sometimes, after the storms of magic they walked through these days.

And then he noticed something else. The fragile flower had been hurt by the warrior star. Narcissa was on the verge of tears, the blue of her eyes watery, held back by her pride alone.

“Don’t you dare feel sorry for me, Rodolphus,” and the flower seemed a lot less fragile, her tone steeled against emotion, “I spend so much time worrying about her, and she doesn’t even think of me once. I know what you do for the Dark Lord, but I’ve chosen another form of service.” She lowered her eyes from his face to her abdomen, and kept her hands on the spot that he could see move, pleading with the unborn child to calm down, stay still.

“She does think of you, Narcissa, just not always at the right moment,” he knew that to be truth, as Bella often regretted the things she said to her sister later, “but she doesn’t actually mean to hurt you. She could never.”

“She does not think of me! She sees me as inferior because I do not fight,” she wiped the lone tear that managed to escape her left eye, “but it never crossed her mind what it is that I do. I’ll serve the cause of the Dark Lord with this child of mine, and that is a sacrifice she could never fathom.” Rodolphus almost took a step behind at that, the flower had turned lioness before his eyes, and she would stand her ground and keep her pride safe, no matter the cost, he could tell.

“I have been serving the Dark Lord with my very home for years. I served him when I had to let a sister go because we didn’t share the same beliefs. I have been in his service by keeping his best spies, his best influencers within the Ministry, sane and happy despite all they do for him.”

And Rodolphus could not deny her work. Lucius seemed to be made of ice, but he knew his cracks, and he knew how only Narcissa could mend him. Abraxas was ice made human, and he could never deny the honest affection in the old man’s eyes whenever they gazed over his daughter-in-law. This flower that soothes warriors is not without her thorns. The war had been raging for months now, and Narcissa endured, steadying everyone around her. An image suddenly came to his mind, a memory.

Years ago, while they were all still just Slytherin students in the hallways of Hogwarts, he had seen Narcissa throw a vicious curse at another student that had hexed her friend. She was just a second year then, but her movements had been fast and easy. He had told Bella of it, and she had been proud of her sister’s skill, in that hidden way a Black was proud of something deemed absolutely natural of the purest blood. That little girl had become this woman before him. A pretty flower, but one that would fight all the same, if on her own terms, by the side of the warrior star.

**Author's Note:**

> Creative Collection: Pairing - Narcissa Malfoy; Angsty Dialogue - I spend so much time worrying about him/her, and he/she doesn’t even think of me once  
> Caffeine Awareness Challenge: Café Bombón - (dialogue) "You're so sweet."  
> Jewel Challenge: Fluorite Ring - Write about someone who has a calming effect on others


End file.
